


A Closeted Collection of Princess Merchandise

by IncurablePeppermint



Category: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Genre: F/F, Pining, Rainbow Dash/Pinkie Pie (Mentioned), Secret Crush
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-16
Updated: 2019-06-05
Packaged: 2019-07-13 02:53:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16008779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IncurablePeppermint/pseuds/IncurablePeppermint
Summary: Rarity doesn't realize she has developed a crush on Twilight Sparkle until Rainbow Dash points out the similarities between her stash of Princess Merchandise and her usual strange shrines to crushes. Once the realization strikes her Rarity has more and more trouble covering up her feelings, but doesn't want to let Twilight know lest the drama of it all cause a schism in their friendship.





	1. Rainbow Crashes into a Slightly Obvious Shrine to Twilight Sparkle

“This isn't… _Quite_ normal support for your friend, Rarity.”

“Whatever do you mean, darling? I’ve only been buying a _bit_ of merchandise to-”

“No, no. This is more than a bit. This is more than your shrine to Trenderhoof.”

“It wasn't a shrine!”

“You had a clipping of his mane.”

“That's… Fair. But this is different. This is of _Twilight,_ our _friend._ ”

Rainbow Dash looks at her incredulously for a moment, then glances upward at the beyond-life size sitting plush of Princess Twilight Sparkle. “Alright so… let's say I believe that. Why was all this _behind a curtain_ in your _sewing room_?” Rarity crosses her hooves and huffs.

“It simply… Clashes with my current decor.”

“You made that up!”

“Made up the _concept of clashing_? I think not.”

“No, you made up that excuse!”

Rainbow Dash flies up into the air with an ornate purple music box, causing Rarity to jump up and try to grab at it. “We all end up with some of this junk. Going to ceremonies and parties and other princess _whatevers_ with Twilight… They're given out as favors all the time.” She tosses the box gently, letting Rarity catch it with her magic and put it back into place. “But _you_ went and bought a bunch extra while we were all trying to give our extras away.”

“That’s hardly your issue.”

“It's not that it's an issue it's just… Obvious.”

“Obvious?”

“Well… you've uh… Uhm…” Rainbow Dash rubs the back of her head with her hoof. “I mean I'm not into that stuff but. You _like_ her, right?”

“She’s our friend, of course I-”

“You know that’s not what I mean. I don't wanna say it all mushy.”

Rarity frowns. Then looks at her collection of Twilight Sparkle memorabilia while tapping her chin. A look of realization comes across her face, then embarrassment. “I… Suppose you're right, Rainbow Dash.”

“Of course I'm right!”

“Well. I suppose I’ll have to hide this better, then” Rarity says, carefully removing a few of the posters from the wall with her magic. Her expression is one of forced dignity. Rainbow Dash watches for a moment, confused. Rarity fetches an empty, fabric lined box from a closet and starts filling it up with her collection.

“Hide it better? What do you mean?”

“Well, Twilight and the others simply _cannot_ know about this little… Crush I seem to have developed. I trust you’ll keep it a secret Dash? And it will pass, soon enough.”

“That doesn't seem…”

“Oh it's perfectly fine. My silly crushes always cause some havoc. You yourself mentioned _Trenderhoof._ How jealous I got, how testy I was with dear Applejack. And then there was Prince Blueblood and our failed date at the ball. Seeing this through would just cause us all trouble. Truly, I’ll be fine with just _this_ Twilight.” She smiles as she holds up the giant Princess plush with her magic, then places it humorously precariously on top of the box, despite the size difference.

“I guess that is true. The havoc, I mean. I dunno if you should date your toy.”

“You know exactly what I mean dearie, be serious.”

Rarity tucks her pile of merchandise away in the closet for the moment, deciding to give it a proper hidden spot at a later date, when a certain crash-prone pegasus wasn’t looking accusingly right at her. “I do, yeah. I’m just still not sure you should just… Hide it. Maybe we should talk to someone else about-” Rarity interrupts her friend by whipping a piece of ribbon around her neck and dragging her down from her hovering position to her own level. She looks her seriously in the eyes, faces touching.

“No one. Can. Know. You can’t even know. Forget what you’ve seen, Dashie.”

“I really don’t think I can forget plush-Twilight’s lifeless eyes.”

“Then just swear you won’t mention it to anypony else. Swear on… Your limited edition Daring Do graphic novel set.”

Rainbow Dash gasps. “You really don’t want anyone to find out, huh?”

“It’s a crush that will pass. I want none of this to get to Twilight and cause any trouble in our friendship. Especially not right now, she’s been so busy.”

Rainbow Dash closes her eyes and thinks for a moment. “Fine! I swear on my Daring Do graphic novels. But! If this doesn’t pass you need to tell her, ok? I know how you get about your romantic mushy gunk and you’ll be miserable just wallowing around in Twilight themed throw blankets.” She offers her hoof for shaking. Rarity smiles and takes it, giving it a firm shake.  
  
    “Deal.”

  



	2. Cupcake Gossip and Cardboard with Glitter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rarity convinces Pinkie Pie that she can unload some extra Princess themed party supplies off onto Sweetie Belle and they have a short chat about Twilight's dress for her trip to Saddle Arabia.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pinkie uses they/them pronouns here, because I like Pinkie as Nonbinary.

“Pinkie, darling, sweetheart, love. This is more than _double_ my order.” Rarity smiles across the counter at her friend, confused and just a pinch annoyed. It’s hard to be truly angry with them, though, even looking at the excess boxes in front of her when she ordered a simple six cupcakes for a personal night and a pan’s worth of brownies for Sweetie and her friends.

Pinkie smiles back at her, wide enough that it pushes wrinkles into their chubby cheeks. “I know _silly_. But you only order a half-dozen purple-persimmon and saddle-arabian hay cupcakes with natural beet sugar sprinkles when you’re going to sit in your room with a bunch of blankets and complain to Opal about how no-pony knows how to do a proper back stitch anymore.” Caught in the act. “So! I thought I would get some snacks for me and come with you, then you could tell me and Gummy about backstitches too!”

“That’s… True. But why do you want to hear about sewing techniques? You don’t have the slightest interest in the stuff, Pinkie.”

“No, but I like hearing you talk about it. Just like I like hearing Applejack talk about cider milling and Twilight talk about lost manuscripts.”

Rarity smiles, catching on. “You’re trying to get more dirt on me for your party planning files, hmm?”

“What? I would never! I don’t need a back-up theme for a fifty third spring fashion line launch party.”

“Pinkie I haven’t launched my _third_ spring fashion line yet.”

“Exactly! That’s why that _isn’t_ what I’m doing. Do you want a ribbon for your brownie box? We have some that matches the girls’ cutie marks. I betcha they’d think that was neat!”

“That would be lovely- but how do you know who the brownies are for?”

Pinkie Pie walks towards a supply closet with a wink, “I know what everyone likes, and these are Sweetie Belle’s favorite _and_ too many for her to eat alone.” When they open the closet a practical waterfall of purple and pink falls out at them, out of which they retrieve the ribbon, a triumphant look on their face. Rarity looks at the abandoned pile curiously as Pinkie ties a fancy bow on one of the many boxes. Princess stuff.

“Darling… Could I ask why you have so many decorations of… Twilight’s face?” she asks, trying not to sound nervous.

“Oh! Well I threw a party for Toola Roola who wanted a Princess Twilight party _but_ when I put the order in for supplies I was also watching Pound Cake and Pumpkin Cake and a certain little unicorn changed the amount on the order form at the last minute so… I have way too much now.” They sigh at the pile behind them. “A lot of ponies want princess parties but the popular princess changes and ponies grow wings or cut their mane so it’s hard to re-use all of it. I just don’t know what to do with these extras right now.”

“I could take some of them off your hooves,” Rarity says, almost too quickly. “I mean, Sweetie Belle and her little friends are meeting up soon, I could give them to her to pass around or to hang up in their treehouse. I’m sure the sweet dears would love it.” She smiles and flutters her eyelashes, hoping she’s covered for herself well. Ever since Rainbow Dash pointed out her… _Issue_ it’s been troublesome keeping it to herself. Rarity is not a subtle pony when it comes to romance and is used to publicly falling all over herself about her latest crush. Or at the very least demurely whining about it to her friends. Well, perhaps not _so_ demurely.

“That would be great. I decorated Pumpkin Cake’s crib with some of the ones that aren’t choking hazards but there’s still just… _So much_.” Pinkie quickly stuffs a few big gift bags full of glitter coated favors and glossy cardboard decor, then passes them to Rarity before bumping the counter, bouncing the boxes of goodies up onto their own back. “Come on, let’s get going!”

“Aren’t you forgetting someone?” Rarity asks, though she’s a bit muffled by the bag handles in her mouth.

Pinkie giggles, “Who, Gummy? No, he’s in my mane!”

“That’s… Hmm. Alright, let’s go then.”

After an uneventful, aside from Pinkie Pie's numerous small chats with towns ponies, walk to Rarity's boutique the two ponies get set up with pillows, blankets, tea, and their designated goodies.

Rarity gives a sigh after swallowing a bite of cupcake. “So I worked on the dress for _days_ but then Sapphire Shores wanted a second, less dazzling design for her backup dancers. I don’t know how to make a design _less_ dazzling! It had to hold the same standards and there was such a tight schedule. Well, I only had to make _one_ of those dresses, thank goodness. Then Coco has agreed to copy the design for the rest of the dancers. But I’m still helping Twilight darling out by making her a proper in-season gown for her upcoming trip to saddle arabia. That’s also on a crunch, she leaves so soon.”

Pinkie Pie pops their fourth cupcake into their mouth, chews, swallows, then spits out the wrapper into their hooves and tosses it into the garbage. “Is there anything I can do to help? I’ve got a cutecenera to put the finishing touches on, but it’s next week.”

Rarity thinks for a moment. “You don’t wear the same size as Twilight or I’d have you model the dresses… But you do have an eye for color, what with party decor. I think perhaps you could help, yes. I’ve been deciding between a few different fabrics for part of the bustle.”

Her horn glows, then she pulls three different fabric swatches out from a desk drawer with her magic and lays them out in front of Pinkie Pie. Pinkie hooves them for a moment, making thinking noises as she stretches the different materials. “I like this one the best, it’s silky, silky soft and this kind of yellow will look great against her tail. That _is_ where the bustle is, right?”

Rarity nods and chuckles a little, “That’s correct, Pinkie. Truthfully I was leaning towards that one anyway. I suppose I just needed someone to confirm my thoughts.”

“Aw, you don’t need that. You always make Twilight really pretty dresses.” They pop another cupcake into their mouth whole, but this time accidentally swallow the wrapper and choke a little before it goes down.

Rarity nervously takes the swatches back and returns them to the drawer. She straightens her mane out a bit with a brush, trying to maintain a casual tone. “Whatever do you mean, Pinkie? I had hoped everything I designed was pretty.”

“Oh! I didn’t mean that they weren't. I just mean… Twilight’s dresses are always really, really, _super-duper_ pretty. It’s so she looks like a princess, right?”

“Of course! There wouldn’t be any other reason for me to put a special focus on her gowns, would there be?” Rarity laughs, not doing well at covering up her relief that Pinkie hasn’t caught on to what she fears is the obvious. “But, I do need to get back to work. Especially now that I’ve decided on what fabric to use for this dress.” She hurriedly finishes up her cupcake and then tries to politely shoo Pinkie Pie towards the door of her room.

“Oh! Of course, good luck Rarity! We’ll set up a playdate for Opal and Gummy later, okay?” Pinkie is cheerful and oblivious as they stack their leftover sweets on their back and then use their tail to grab Gummy, who had been lightly chewing Opal’s bed while the cat looked on in horror for the past ten minutes or so. “Bye-e!”  
“I’ll see you later, darling.”

As soon as Pinkie Pie has made their way out of the house and Rarity sees them bounce over the horizon towards Sugarcube Corner, Rarity pulls the bags of party supplies over to herself and starts going through them. She will have to give some of these up to Sweetie Belle. If she doesn’t, she’ll look suspicious. However, there’s no reason not to get a few cute little sparkling cardboard hangings of her friend to put in with the rest of her Princess merchandise.  

“You have to tell her. Pish, posh. Dash doesn’t know what she’s talking about.” Rarity pulls out and holds up a banner made out of several cutesy, lineless drawings of Twilight in circles, completed with shining plastic rhinestones. A warm smile comes to her lips. “This is perfectly fine, I’m perfectly satisfied with this. Isn’t she just adorable here, Opal?” Rarity sets the banner into a pile for herself and keeps going through the bags. Second banner, for Sweetie Belle. Unfilled mylar balloon, for Rarity. Cardboard princess crowns, Sweetie Belle.

“She just doesn’t understand, Opal. I can keep this to myself. I’ve done a perfectly good job of it so far. The only reason Rainbow Dash found out was because she couldn’t keep from _crashing_ into my things. It’ll be fine.”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rainbow Dash confronts Rarity about her merch hoarding and admits that she isn't the best at keeping secrets. They reminisce about a pet wedding.

Rarity bites her lip and taps her front hooves together. She knows she’ll pay for this in chapstick and manicures later. Her accelerated heartbeat doesn’t allow her to be too concerned about the ramifications of her fidgeting. Rainbow Dash is rummaging roughly through her closet of Princess Twilight Sparkle merchandise after having stormed into the Carousel Boutique.

“I know you got Pinkie to give you her extra party decorations for your weird shrine!”

“Preposterous! I gave those extras to Sweetie Belle and she gave them to all her little cutie mark friends,” Rarity defends herself with a half-lie. She certainly gave the  _ extras _ to her little sister (who whined that all of her friends already have a ton of Twilight Sparkle toys and only agreed to take them if Rarity bought her more brownies). Rainbow Dash pulls out a cardboard centerpiece that is stuck together to form a three-dimensional version of Twilight’s cutie mark and covered in sparkling cellophane. She gives Rarity an appropriately dismissive roll of the eyes. Rarity laughs nervously and averts her eyes.

“Well... Not before picking out a _ few _ things for my own collection...”

“You’ve got to stop this. It’s ridiculous!”

“It’s not! It’s.... Romantic pining. Like in dramatic literature. You enjoy literature, don’t you Dashie?”

“I like action, the kind you don’t find in your trashy bit novels.”

Rarity gasps, “Take that back! I will not allow you to insult  _ Mare, Wife, or Widow _ like that!”

“I don’t care about any of your romance books, Rarity!”

“Well you should care, they’re beautiful written works about matters of the heart- An organ that _ you _ apparently lack!”

“You’re trying to distract me! Rarity, you just moved your shrine into a closet,” Rainbow Dash pauses just long enough to point her hoof at a soft purple cushion and a pile of Twilight Sparkle throw pillows and fleece blankets on the ground, “ _ And _ you obviously spend a lot of time in here.”

“Well... So what if you’re right? I’m  _ allowed _ to pine.”

Rainbow Dash flops down onto the waiting cushions and screams her frustration out into a limited edition Twilight Sparkle Pillow Friend. “Rarity. Listen. I’m garbage at keeping secrets. If no one else finds out from me you know Pinkie will. We  _ live _ together. And you know how Pinkie can get about matchmaking.” She pulls the toy away from her face and just hugs it close, trying to squeeze any bit of comfort she can out of the plushie’s soft body.

“Oh, no... I do remember the wedding between Tank and Angel.”

“Uh huh. And how Fluttershy didn’t get an invite until it was already starting. In her backyard. Because Pinkie knew she’d be too nervous to object. Do you want a secret wedding? Is that what you want?”

“No! That would be dreadful! I could never manage to prepare a proper wedding day wardrobe without  _ at least _ a year’s prior notice.”

“I think there are more important problems to deal with when you have a surprise wedding, but yeah.”

“Oh Dash, you poor dear. You don’t suspect they’re planning a surprise wedding for the two of you, do you?”

Rainbow Dash sets down the Pillow Friend and asks, with sudden urgency in her voice, “What?”

“Well, the two of you  _ have _ been living together for some time now and I know that between the two of you we all would have heard when the question got popped... Unless  _ someone _ was planning a surprise.”

“I have to go.” Rainbow Dash flies out of Rarity’s house. She exits the window with such speed that she threatens to take the curtains with her. 

Rarity sighs with relief and uses her magic to re-organize her closet. She straightens her curtains and closes her window. “She just doesn’t understand, Opal,” she coos as she picks up her fluffy white cat. Rarity flops down on her bed and places Opal down beside her. She gently pets the cat with one hoof. “Twilight simply cannot find out about this... Faux pax.”

Opal meows in response, which Rarity accepts as support. "Exactly. Oh, I'm so glad that someone understands me." She gives her best dramatic sigh and turns over onto her back. "It  _ really _ ,  _ truly _ is a crush just like all of my others. If Rainbow Dash gives me just a little more time I’ll have moved on to some movie mare or fashion writer. There's no point in pursuing it." Opal gives a little whining-meow, prompting Rarity to begin petting her once more.

"Well, yes. I have pursued all my other crushes. But Twilight is my  _ friend _ and I've not exactly remained friends with any of my other romantic interests." She pauses for a moment, tapping her free hoof on her chin. "Though... I wasn't  _ exactly _ friends with any of them before. And I  _ have _ maintained my professional relationship with Trenderhoof... Oh. Maybe Rainbow Dash is right." Rarity groans and turns back towards her pet. "Opal, what do you think?"

Opal gets up and stretches before laying back down on one of Rarity's pillows. "You're no help."


End file.
